Microsoft Office Suite Tops Free iPad Apps Just 24 Hours After Launch

Did Microsoft wait too long to launch Office for iPad? Maybe, maybe not, but if you consider that Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote (which was refreshed, but isn’t new) are already the top free apps for the iPad, you can see there was certainly pent up demand for the service. Of course, there’s a big possibility these are already at the top because they’re free apps – anyone can download them and open/read Office 365 files. To actually create and edit, however, you’ll need a subscription and it’s not apparent how many folks are also Office 365 subscribers, or how many people have since signed up.

The reviews for each app so far seem relatively positive, too. Word for iPad has a 3.5 star rating with 1,087 reviews, for example, while Excel has a similar rating and PowerPoint has four stars, though those apps have about half as many reviews in total. The top in-app purchases for each app is, obviously, the Office 365 Home subscription that costs $99.99, and of which Microsoft has to give Apple a 30-percent cut. As I argued yesterday, I would have really liked to have seen standalone prices for the Office Suite, so that there was a non-subscription option. At this rate, I’ll never get my way.

We’ll see how long the Office Suite stays up on top – it may be short lived if folks are just giving it a whirl, or it may be a sign that Microsoft’s Office is indeed going to be very successful on the iPad.